New Bedford's teachers union to meet Friday

Thursday

May 1, 2014 at 12:01 AM

NEW BEDFORD — The city's teachers union will hold an "urgent" general membership meeting Friday to discuss concerns — including teacher assaults — in a session scheduled before the latest report of an incident at New Bedford High School.

JONATHAN CARVALHO

NEW BEDFORD — The city's teachers union will hold an "urgent" general membership meeting Friday to discuss concerns — including teacher assaults — in a session scheduled before the latest report of an incident at New Bedford High School.

On Wednesday, school officials issued a statement in which they said an "agitated" student had "displayed physical aggression" toward an NBHS teacher on Tuesday.

As a result of that incident, "the student is being removed from the high school," according to the statement attributed to the "School Department."

It went on to say that school Superintendent Pia Durkin was at the high school at the time of the incident "and consulted with the teacher involved, encouraging her to leave the school. The teacher is expected to return to her duties soon." She was not identified.

Durkin did not return two phone calls seeking comment Wednesday evening; Mayor Jon Mitchell and teachers union president Lou St. John also could not be reached for comment.

The union meeting — notice of which has been posted on the New Bedford Educators Association blog at least since April 26 — is described as "urgent." It will be at 3:15 p.m. Friday at the Keith Middle School auditorium and a post also urged teachers to wear red as a show of solidarity, as they have done in the past.

In a blog post dated Monday, the union expressed concerns including the handling of the case of Joanne Maura, an NBHS teacher; a student threw a chair toward her on March 24.

"As a direct result of recent events, we feel it is imperative to meet collectively to determine if our concerns, particularly assaults, were reasonably and fairly addressed by the administration," the post read.

"It is our hope to have an open discussion to determine the effectiveness of Dr. Durkin's plan to decrease the 'climate of fear' that remains prevalent at all levels of the (New Bedford Public Schools)," the post continued.

School Committee Lawrence Finnerty said Wednesday he had heard that Tuesday's incident at the high school involved a garbage can being thrown by a student. He also said he sympathizes with teachers' concerns on school assaults.

"They're not just a minor behavioral issue," said Finnerty. "This is a crime. An assault upon a teacher is a crime."

He said assaults on teachers by students should be handled by the authorities, in this case the police.

"These are serious, serious issues that should be investigated as potential crimes," said Finnerty.

It is also worrisome that there is "a lack of personal and collective responsibility" among some students, Finnerty said. In Maura's classroom, Finnerty said he was surprised that no students told the chair-throwing student "to sit down and shut up."

Finnerty stressed that high school students, especially seniors whom he said made up most of Maura's class, are young adults and should act responsibly. He said that when he was a senior, students were being drafted for the Vietnam War.

Finnerty also called for a community-wide effort involving students, parents, faculty and administrators to develop a set of firm rules for school behavior.